PODCAST · sports
The Competitor’s Brain
by Loren Foxx
We take years of experience in sports psychology, including working with greats in the business like Ken Ravizza, Brian Cain, and Dr. Rob Gilbert, and assemble the highlights into an easy-to-digest three minute daily podcast. Well, it’s supposed to be daily, at least. Sometimes it’s the start that stops me. But hey, I’m human.
Episodes
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80 - The Importance of Recall
I remember golfing with my friends. Some of my closest friends. I was in my twenties. I was a decent golfer, got down to the low teens, regularly in the low 80s. Two of my roommates were excellent golfers. They were both accountants. They did not fit into Happy Gilmore’s stereotype of golfers.…
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79 - Don't Think, It Can Only Hurt the Ballclub
The legendary catcher Crash Davis was at the center of the baseball movie Bull Durham. Early in the movie, rookie pitcher Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh and Crash meet behind a bar in Durham… you know, the classic “wanna step outside” moment. The moment culminates with Crash challenging Nuke to throw…
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78 - Access and Compounding
If you have access to something that can set you apart, and you're willing to put in the work necessary, your skill set can compound. The gains that you can make will set you apart from others due to the advantage you have been given. Will you capture it, or will you let it slip?
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77 - The People You Spend The Most Time With
We are the average of the people we spend the most time with. We pick up their habits, we pick up their opinions, we pick up their attitudes toward the world. If you hang with people who make bad choices... well, you will make bad choices too.
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76 - Note Taking
For most of us, it's not enough to read. The information just tends to get lost over time. It's about cataloguing the information in a meaningful way in order to be able to reference it later. There are many different ways to go about it, and there's no right way... but there needs to be a way.
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75 - Success Leaves Clues
If you want to be successful, you need to look at what those who are truly successful are doing. The best students... are they taking notes differently? How do they study? How do they organize their thoughts? The best athletes... how do they practice? Do they watch film? What do they look for...
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Episode 74 - Compounding
This episode started out about compounding, and how a small investment in a person at a critical time in their lives can make a massive difference. I guess it's still about compounding. But there are times you can take a small thing—an offer of space or access—and give it to someone to see what...
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Life Rewards Action
Shane Parrish had a great quote in his Brain Food newsletter in late July about life rewarding action. We'll review the quote here and how this ties into becoming a champion, and why hard work wins.
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UNC Soccer Bonus - The Vision of a Champion
Sometimes things just tie together. We have just finished reviewing the Core Values for UNC Women's Soccer, and I was reminded of a quote from their legendary coach Anson Dorrance to Mia Hamm. He saw her working out on a cold morning and wrote her a note that said "The vision of a champion is...
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UNC Women's Soccer #11 - Be Well Led
Leaders can change an organization's culture. For the 1988 Dodgers, that leader was Kirk Gibson. Gibson was on the receiving end of a prank that changed the Dodgers' season. “Basically, I don’t want to be a part of their fun and comedy act,” said Gibson. “I’m not a radical guy. I go by the rules....
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UNC Women's Soccer #12 - We Appreciate What We've Received
Oftentimes, athletes don't realize how good they have it. UNC wanted their team members to realize that feeling grateful for what you have received is a necessary aspect to a winning culture.
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UNC Women's Soccer #10 - Play For Each Other
This one reminded me of the scene from Miracle where Mike Eruzione finally realizes what Coach Brooks wanted from them all along: to play for each other on a team, not to be different people from different schools. The best teams play for each other and that manifests itself in love.
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UNC Women's Soccer #9 - Caring For Your Teammates
When you're on a team, you have to actually care about your teammates. It sounds elementary, but it's not always something that happens - which is why we need a reminder of this core value. The winningest teams have a culture of caring about one another.
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UNC Women's Soccer #8 - Support the Team
I get it, it's hard to support the team when you aren't playing. But in order for you to be ready to play at any moment, you have to be in the game, and support your team no matter the circumstances.
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UNC Women's Soccer #7 - Respect
Give respect to everyone. Don't make anyone feel as if they are beneath you.
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UNC Women's Soccer #6 - Choose to be Positive
Your attitude is a choice. What will you choose in the situation you're in?
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UNC Women's Soccer #5 - Don't Intensify Problems
Or, as P.D. Eastman wrote in the classic children's book, "don't make big problems out of little problems."
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UNC Women's Soccer #4 - Hard Work
How hard are you willing to work to get whatever it is that you really want?
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UNC Women's Soccer #3 - Experience College
This is #3 of the UNC Women's Soccer core values as espoused by their coach, Anson Dorrance. He says "And we want these four years of college to be rich, valuable, and deep." This means doing the right things to become educated, but also making the right choices to get value out of your…
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UNC Women's Soccer #2 - Something Every Day
UNC women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance says that UNC players must do something every day to get better. It's not just practice for the sake of practicing. It's deliberate practice, to get better. The reference in this is incorrect, btw: it's Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. (My bad, my source was...
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UNC Women's Soccer #1 - Don't Whine
Legendary UNC women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance is retiring, and his Core Values for his program set the tone for the winningest program in the sport's history. #1: Don't Whine. Why is this important? Learn more in just under three minutes.
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Life Rewards Action
In life, we often think that riches will be bestowed upon us. But good things rarely happen without hard work and self-reflection. In today's podcast, I'll dig into a quote from Shane Parrish's Brain Food newsletter that really drives this point home.
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Opinions
Epictetus said "It is not things that upset us, it is our opinion about those things." He's right. When we take things personally, we project perceived opinions of others about us onto them, accurate or not. When you're going about your day today, make an effort to realize it's not all about you....
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#59 - Don't Major in the Minor
Arnold Schwarzenegger brought it up in his daily newsletter yesterday. The fact that when we start a habit, we generally need everything to be right. Going to the gym? What supplements should I take? Should I take a pre-workout? It goes back to the old adage Rob Gilbert brought up yesterday. The...
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Your Best Friend
I was on Instagram (boo) watching Mookie Betts talk to himself during a round of BP. There were two things that happened in the video (thanks @sweetspothitting for posting it). 1. He sort of dictates the outcome before he takes the swing. Of course, this is hard to do, and we're talking about a…
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My 3-Minute Grad Speech to the Class of 2024
Well, it's three minutes and 30 seconds. But it's a collection of things I wish I'd heard when I was 18. Or maybe it's a collection of things I wish I'd listened to when I was 18. I probably heard them but I thought I knew everything. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Don't practice until you can't get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong
I recorded this in one take, which is ironic. Nick Saban says "Don't practice until you can't get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong." And it's often said that you don't rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your training. So if you practice to a point you can't get it…
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Creating, or why you shouldn't use AI to create cool stuff
I saw a quote that my colleague Kara LaMarche posted to Instagram: "I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so I can do laundry and dishes." We have handed many uniquely human things over to AI. Designing, making art, making…
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Excellence
I've seen bits of the same quote from Daniel Chambliss about excellence in Olympic swimmers. I saw it in Billy Oppenheimer's Sunday email back in September, and James Clear had it in his last Thursday... so now you get it too. Excellence is created by doing the little things, one on top of the...
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Circumstances - 51
In this episode, I talk about how Marcus Aurelius' response to circumstances (ie what happens) isn't terribly unlike what Mike Damone's advice to his friend Rat is in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Probably the first time that sentence has ever been typed. Probably also the last time.
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What do you focus on in college?
I considered this for a bit, and it finally hit me. Why, when I was in college, did I major in accounting, of all things. I met some amazing people, worked on some fun accounts, but accounting. I am not the best with rules and guidelines and I am generally pretty creative. You do that stuff with...
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Consistency
This one's a great story from Billy Oppenheimer's weekly "Six at Six" email. It's here if you want to read it. The legendary lacrosse coach Tony Seaman told a room full of kids that if they wanted to play D1 lacrosse, they needed to shoot 100 shots a day every single day. Paul Rabil followed that...
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Significance
In the movie Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) goes to Minnesota to find Dr. Archibald Graham (Burt Lancaster). It's one of the best scenes in movie history... I am biased. They discuss the significance of the half-inning 50 years later. "We just don't recognize life's most…
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Inflection Points
We all have inflection points in our lives. In the novel "Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson, the narrator tells a story about growing up where his life could have gone in multiple directions. He made a choice at that point to take the proper direction, and it greatly influenced his life. So…
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You Don't Have To Have Your Best Stuff
"Godfather of Sports Psychology" Dr. Ken Ravizza says that you don't have to have your best stuff to compete. Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven says that 10% of the time, you'll have your best stuff; 80% of the time you'll be mid; and 10% of the time you'll have no stuff. So how do you win when...
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Life Is Not A Skill Game, Life Is A Strategy Game
Dr. Rob Gilbert says this all the time. And it's true. If you consider the strategic aspects of a situation, rather than just going ahead and executing, you will see better performance. Not all situations call for the same exact execution; a sales call with the same client on two different days…
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Carrying Yourself with Confidence
Well, I guess when you don't record podcasts, you lose momentum. In his podcast The Knowledge Project, Shane Parrish interviews Dr. Jim Loehr. (The title of his book I couldn't remember is "Toughness Training for Life." Regardless, Loehr tells a story about interviewing a bullfighter that...
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O Stream of Life
There is a fountain at Mudd Hall of Philosophy at USC that says "O stream of life, run you slow or fast, all streams reach the sea at last." If the sea is death or the end, this means that the stream of your life will get there eventually... so what will your stream be like? Meaningful, or...
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Giving Them Their Money's Worth
I am on a Springsteen kick... sorry. When someone goes to see The Boss, they know that he's going to give them their money's worth. (I saw him last weekend and he played for three hours. He is 74. My feet hurt standing up.) When someone comes to watch you play, are you giving them their money's...
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Nothing To Lose
When Bruce Springsteen walked into the office of music executive John Hammond in 1972, he was nobody. He played a mental trick on himself at that point: he figured that if he failed, he was no worse off than if he'd never walked into the office. Spoiler alert: he crushed it, and consequently, you...
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Would You Buy A Ticket?
There have been a lot of fan favorites over the years, where people say "I'd buy a ticket to watch them play." Well, would you buy a ticket to watch yourself play? What can you do to make yourself be the kind of player that people want to see? What kind of attributes can you portray?
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Slumps and Perfection
Slumps are not forever, and neither is perfection. If you start off slow, you're one hit away from a hot streak. There's a great book from the late 80s by George Will called Men At Work. In it, Hershiser is asked whether he goes to the mound in the first inning planning to pitch a complete game.…
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Enthusiasm
This comes via Brian Cain and Dr. Rob Gilbert, but it's the first chapter of former St. Louis Cardinal Frank Bettger's book How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. Short answer: enthusiasm. Being passive and unenthusiastic does not open doors for you. Being enthusiastic does. 10...
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Be A Baseball Player
This week is April break in Bedford. It means our players can just be baseball players. Sure, there may be other commitments to family and friends, and other leisure time... but for the most part, they're ballplayers who don't have to worry about school or other intrusions. When was the last time...
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Turn Off Your Notifications
The average person gets hundreds of notifications a day. They interrupt us at all times: when we're conversing with people we care about, when we're trying to do deep work, when we're sleeping. Improve your productivity. Turn off your notifications to everything except the stuff it's worth…
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Euthymia
Seneca the Younger defines "euthymia" as "believing in yourself and trusting that you are on the right path, and not being in doubt by following the myriad footpaths of those wandering in every direction." It can be hard when you see other people doing things you want to do, getting rewards you...
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Find The Joy
When you're trying to master a skill, it can be frustrating. It can also be frustrating when you let the expectations of others as well as external motivations creep in. Here's a great story about Novak Djokovic and finding the joy in playing his sport, remembering why he started playing to begin...
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The Obstacle Is The Way
We all really love working on the things we're good at. But often the way to success and getting what you want is working on the things you're NOT good at. The lessons you learn along the way, coupled with a new skill, can be what you need to propel you to greatness. It's also the title of a…
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Good, with credit to Jocko Willink
When suboptimal things happen to you, how do you react? Next time, say "good." Navy Seal Jocko Willink (I think his name was officially changed to that about 10 years ago - it's impossible to refer to him as only "Jocko Willink") has an excellent perspective on what to do when it hits the fan.…
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Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk
This is an episode where I wonder where this saying even came from, but then I dig a little deeper into what it actually means, and why it's not even about milk... I didn't drink much milk as a kid, anyway.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
We take years of experience in sports psychology, including working with greats in the business like Ken Ravizza, Brian Cain, and Dr. Rob Gilbert, and assemble the highlights into an easy-to-digest three minute daily podcast. Well, it’s supposed to be daily, at least. Sometimes it’s the start that stops me. But hey, I’m human.
HOSTED BY
Loren Foxx
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Competitor’s Brain have?
The Competitor’s Brain currently has 80 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Competitor’s Brain about?
We take years of experience in sports psychology, including working with greats in the business like Ken Ravizza, Brian Cain, and Dr. Rob Gilbert, and assemble the highlights into an easy-to-digest three minute daily podcast. Well, it’s supposed to be daily, at least. Sometimes it’s the start that...
How often does The Competitor’s Brain release new episodes?
The Competitor’s Brain has 80 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Competitor’s Brain?
You can listen to The Competitor’s Brain on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Competitor’s Brain?
The Competitor’s Brain is created and hosted by Loren Foxx.
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